Column: Power cut leaves owners in the dark

Today’s column is about one family’s frustrating experience with a bureaucracy that most of us know well.

State government? Good guess, but not this time. A cable or Internet provider? Nope.

This bureaucracy is the public utility that provides electricity and natural gas in most corners of our region. That’s right, I’m talking about National Grid — a company that’s been the focus of several tales of Advocate woe.

This week, I talked with two men named Bob Farley — a father and a son — who are more than a little unhappy with the company.

The Farleys own an apartment building in Troy, a Fifth Avenue three-flat they purchased in 2010. It was an unoccupied dump then, but the father-son team poured money and sweat into a renovation, turning the building on the edge of downtown into a gem.

The Farleys had a small problem with National Grid at the time of the renovation, because the company, they say, insisted there was not a building where their building, in fact, stands. But that little snafu was eventually resolved, and all seemed well between the Farleys and the utility.

Until January.

That, according to the Farleys, is when National Grid stopped sending bills for the meter that measures electricity usage in their building’s common areas — the front hall and stairway, and the garage. Electric bills for each of the three apartments continued to arrive as usual.

The younger Farley, who actually lives in the building’s first-floor unit, called National Grid to inquire about the missing bills, but still they didn’t come. He called three more times as time went by, he says, but still didn’t get the problem resolved.

In fact, he hasn’t received a bill for the meter for all of 2012, despite his best efforts.

Then, last Thursday, a National Grid worker arrived and, without any warning to the Farleys, “pulled the meter” — meaning he shut off power and plunged the building’s stairway into darkness. That, of course, is not particularly convenient for tenants who rely on light to find their way to second- and third-floor apartments.

“It’s extremely frustrating that they came and turned off the power without notifying me first,” said the younger Farley. “I was livid.”

Farley lost a few hours of his life on the phone that afternoon, as he tried to resolve the issue and get the utility to turn the power back on. He had some success — electricity is set to be turned back on Thursday.

That’s a week without power, although the Farleys bought flashlights for their tenants and had an electrician run temporary power lines to the dark parts of the building.

It still isn’t clear what happened. Why did the bills stop coming? And why did National Grid turn off power to part of an apartment building without notifying the owners?

Unfortunately, National Grid’s privacy rules prevented me from getting much of an answer. Virginia Limmiatis, a spokeswoman for the company, couldn’t talk specifically about what happened to the Farleys. But generally, she said, the company doesn’t shut off power without sending several warnings that the move is coming.

“We’re not in business to pull people’s meters,” Limmiatis said. “It’s really a last resort.”

I don’t doubt that’s true. But I also believe the Farleys are rightfully angry. In this case, National Grid certainly seems to have messed up.

“It’s not like we called once and forgot about it,” said the elder Farley (photo above), who is 64. “We called again and again.”

The Farleys’ building is in a rapidly reviving area of Troy, near new private dorms for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students and restaurants like The Brown Bag. The Farleys, both of whom are in the construction business, are from Vermont, but bought in Troy because they believe in the city’s resurgence.

But it seems as though National Grid treated them like one of the absentee property owners that still plague parts of the city, as if the Farleys are just another bad landlord who doesn’t care whether the lights stay on.

Oddly, the next-door building, occupied by No Name Design, had a similar problem. An owner of the company told me National Grid at one point stopped sending bills for service to one of that building’s units. The problem was resolved, though, before service was cut off.

Farley, the father, said he called me because he wanted to make people aware of how they were treated. He wanted to draw attention to what he believes is mismanagement.

The Farleys’ complaint was well timed, because it just so happens the Times Union is running an investigative story on Sunday that examines the apparent decline of the nation’s electric utilities, including National Grid. Among other changes, the story reports on how many utilities boosted CEO pay while shedding workers.

Deep cuts to payroll might explain why it is taking National Grid a week to restore power to the Farleys’ building. (That assumes that the company arrives on Thursday as scheduled.) It might also explain why their problem happened in the first place.

The Farleys, who still haven’t been told how much they’ll owe National Grid for the unbilled electricity, can only wonder.

9 Responses

I still remember the last big snow storm. The street I live on lost power. National Grid came within 4 hours and restored power to all but 7 of us. The workers said there was a tree accross the line and one another crew came and cut it away they would come and turn our power back on. About 4 hours later I saw and heard the crew cut away the tree. I then started calling national grid to find out when the power would be on. I was given different information each time I called. I tried explaining that I was concerned because my wife is disabled and I could not get her out without some diffculty so they recommended I bring her to a shelter. They assured me the workorder was in and it should be any time now. Seven days later and numerous telephone calls later a crew showed up. I approached them and they became very defensive and said don’t blame them they just got the work order that morning. The other thing I forgot to mention was I sent a complaint to the public service commission and to this day I have never received any reply.

Below is a link to NY Public Service Commission. I would advise people to submit their complaints there as a start. Although it’s been my experience that they are almost as inept as National Grid. It took me multiple phonecalls to PSC to get them to lift a finger in a particular incident of mine. My first phonecall that I made to PSC to file a complaint against NG resulted in them actually transferring me to a NG office. NG had disconnected my gas intake in my basement due to work they were performing on my street. They never reconnected it. I called that night and spent countless phonecalls over the course of about several hours trying to resolve it. I told them that the temperature in my home was dropping fast on that March night and that I had a baby in the home etc etc. They denied disconnecting it, and told me there was nothing they could do, they are not responsible blah blah blah. I got nowhere with them; they were just not actually listening to what I was telling them. Thankfully I had a friend that worked for NG and I called him at his home late that night and he came right over and confirmed everything that I had already told customer service, and he fixed it. Right there from my home he called the manager of Customer Service office and ripped them a new one and let them know how furious he was with how incompetently they handled the situation. After my complaints to the PSC, NG pulled the audio tapes from my phone calls and as a result they gave me a $50.00 credit on my next bill. NG bureacracy and customer service is the problem with that company, not the workers out there in the trenches.http://www.dps.ny.gov/

I’m reminded of that little small print warning that is included with most paper-style billings I still recieve that states that I am responsible for the payments even if the bill doesn’t arrive. That is why I always set up e-mail notifications and go into each account once a month, at least, to make sure everything is up to date. Utility companies are infamous for pushing us into paperless billing. This is one tactic that is used more and more. They just stop sending bills and creat a bureaucratic nightmare when you try and fix the problem. But to just show up and pull a meter without knowing who and what will be affected shouldn’t be allowed.

It’s unfortunate that this kind of srew-up happens, but it’s great that the TU is publicizing it. Perhaps some good will come as a result. The news media need to do more regarding investigating and publicizing fraud, abuse, corruption, and poor customer service in business and industry. Too much in the private sector is hidden and goes unacknowledged and unreported.

For some reason, I thought there had to be some sort of proof that they had sent these letters and that the letters had been received – certified mail with a signature or whatnot. It doesn’t appear there is any proof in this case that they did notify the Farleys. Chris, I know National Grid wasn’t very forthcoming, but did they offer up any proof that they did just that?